


For Your Own Good

by mithrel



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: Blanket Permission, Fluff, Gen, Podfic Welcome, Shore Leave, Thanksgiving
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-08-13
Updated: 2010-08-13
Packaged: 2017-11-11 01:04:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/472741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mithrel/pseuds/mithrel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jim knew by now that it was nearly impossible to change Spock’s mind once he was set on something.  So he would have to be sneaky. For the schmoop_bingo prompt: "Thanksgiving - meeting the parents."</p>
            </blockquote>





	For Your Own Good

They were scheduled for shore leave on Earth, and most of the crew had plans. Jim was planning on visiting his mother, Bones was going to spend some time with his daughter and even Scotty was going planetside rather than staying with the ship while it was in drydock.

Spock, however…when Jim had asked what he had planned for the shore leave he’d replied, “I can rest perfectly well in my quarters, and perhaps I will be able to assist the engineers.”

Jim had snorted, but he knew by now that it was nearly impossible to change Spock’s mind once he was set on something. So he would have to be sneaky.

He’d messaged his mom and told her Commander Spock didn’t have anywhere to go for shore leave. He’d said it was fine if she didn’t want a stranger at Thanksgiving dinner, but asked her if it would be alright if he brought Spock along when he beamed down. She’d replied to say that she’d be expecting them and that she’d make sure she had something vegetarian.

Jim had grinned when he read it and gone to find Spock.

***

“You still planning on staying here over shore leave?” he asked when he’d found Spock in the rec room.

“I believe I said that,” Spock replied evenly, turning away from where he was focused on Uhura singing. “I do not understand why humans ask questions to which they already know the answer.”

Jim shrugs. “It’s just I messaged my mom and asked if it was OK if you spent Thanksgiving with us, and she said it was.”

Spock’s lips tightened. “That was presumptuous of you, especially considering you already knew my plans.”

“Oh come on, Spock!” Jim wheedled. “You don’t want to disappoint my mother, do you?”

Spock’s fingers twitched against the table, but he nodded. “Very well. I will spend my shore leave visiting your family.”

Jim managed to repress a grin. “Good. You need to get off the ship occasionally. Or don’t Vulcans get cabin fever?”

“We have no issue with extended tours of duty,” Spock replied, which Jim suspected was bullshit, but he didn’t make an issue of it.

***

Jim put the finishing touches on his packing as they pulled into Earth orbit and headed to the transporter room. Spock was there, a bag over his shoulder, his expression as close to sour as it ever got.

Jim gave him a bright smile. “You ready?”

Spock grimaced slightly, but nodded.

The beamdown point was in San Francisco, so they had to take another transporter to Riverside.

“This is where you grew up?” Spock asked as they materialized.

Jim grinned. “Yep. All the authorities in a ten-mile radius know what I look like.”

“Given your deportment when you first beamed aboard the _Enterprise,_ I don’t doubt it,” Spock replied wryly.

They took a short-range flyer to Jim’s house. Jim felt a pang of regret for giving away his old bike, even though it didn’t begin to compare with the _Enterprise._

Jim knocked on the door, and after a moment his mother opened it.

Her face lit up when she saw him. “Jim!”

He put down his bag so she could hug him. “Hi, mom.” He turned to Spock, who was standing at half-attention with his arms behind his back. It would take someone who knew him as well as Jim did to see that he was uncomfortable. “This is Commander Spock, my first officer.”

She nodded at him, and held out her hand in the Vulcan salute. “Live long and prosper, Commander.”

Spock raised a brow, then returned it. “Peace and long life, Mrs. Kirk.”

She smiled slightly. “Winona, please. But what am I doing, making you stand on the doorstep? Come in!”

They went inside, and Jim could tell his mother had been cooking. A glance into the kitchen confirmed it. There were three pots on the stove, and he was fairly sure the ovens were in use. “You really went all out, didn’t you?”

“I ate replicated food the entire time I was onboard ship, I can cook if I want!” she said, her eyes twinkling.

“I still can’t believe that you retired.”

“Well, with my son the youngest captain in the ‘Fleet I figured I was allowed.” His mother turned back to Spock. “I made sure there are plenty of vegetarian dishes.”

Spock nodded. “Thank you Mrs. Kirk.”

“It won’t be ready for a couple of hours yet, so why don’t you put your things away?”

“OK. Come on, Spock, I’ll show you your room.”

The guest room where Uncle Frank used to sleep when he came over had been aired out and the bed changed. “Bathroom’s down the hall.”

Spock nodded. “This will be satisfactory, thank you.”

Jim grinned. “Don’t see why you should be thanking me, since I dragged you here.”

“Courtesy is not dependent on circumstances,” Spock replied and Jim grinned again.

***

Jim showered and then went out to help with the dinner, but his mother chased him out of the kitchen with a “You don’t know anything about cooking, shoo!”

At six they sat down to dinner, and Winona had been true to her word. There was ham and turkey, but there were also three kinds of potatoes, corn on the cob, cranberry sauce and green-bean casserole.

“I hope you don’t mind if we eat meat, Commander.”

Spock shook his head. “I am accustomed to it.”

“Yeah, he eats with me all the time,” Jim put in, and his mother laughed.

“Jim tells me you taught at the Academy,” his mother said when they’d all been served.

Spock nodded. “I was an instructor for several years.”

“He’s the one who developed the Kobayashi Maru,” Jim said.

“That’s the test that no one can beat, isn’t it?”

Spock’s lips tightened. “No one who follows the rules.”

Jim laughed. “Are you still sore about that?”

“Vulcans do not get ‘sore,’” Spock corrected him.

“Yeah. Sure.”

“I was surprised that you didn’t bring Leonard with you,” his mother said, and Jim remembered how she’d derailed arguments between him and Sam when they were younger by distracting one of them with a question. Not that he and Spock argued the same way as he and Sam had.

“He’s visiting his ex. Or, as he put it, ‘putting up with Jocelyn so I can see Joanna.’”

His mother laughed. “That sounds like him!”

“Doctor McCoy is an excellent CMO, even if his methods are somewhat…unorthodox,” Spock said.

“I’m gonna tell him you said that when we get back,” Jim teased.

“I would prefer you didn’t. The doctor thrives off persecution.”

Jim chuckled. “You do have a point. He might have a heart attack if he thought you actually approved of him.”

His mother hid a smile behind her hand.

“Have you heard from Sam?” At Spock’s curious look, he elaborated. “My brother.”

“He was cataloging plant-life on Ferril II last I heard.”

Jim nodded as Spock pushed his plate away. “Thank you for the meal, Mrs. Kirk. It was excellent.”

“Yeah, you really outdid yourself,” Kirk said, then yawned.

“Go on to bed, I’ll clean up.”

“No way! You made dinner, I’ll clean up!”

Spock helped him clear the table and put the leftovers away. Kirk only let himself go to bed once all the dishes were in the cleanser and the food was in stasis.

***

The rest of their stay passed uneventfully, and when it was time to leave his mother hugged him. “You be sure to come back the next time you have leave.”

Jim nodded. “I will, Mom.”

“You’d be welcome too, Commander.”

Spock raised an eyebrow, but nodded. “Thank you…Winona.”

She beamed at him.


End file.
